d on the coast, which lasts from April till
October, may be almost said to be the most severe in the world. At
Kej, in Mekram, the thermometer sometimes registers 125 deg. Fahr. in the
shade as early as April, while the heat in the same district during
the "Khurma-Paz," or "Date-ripening," is so intense that the natives
themselves dare not venture abroad in the daytime.

Notwithstanding this, even the south of Baluchistan has its cold
season. Near Beila, in the month of January, the temperature
frequently falls as low as 35 deg. Fahr. in the mornings, rising no higher
than 65 deg. at any portion of the day. At Kelat, on the other hand, which
stands 6800 feet above sea-level, the extreme maximum heat as yet
recorded during the months of July and August is only 103 deg. Fahr.,
while the extreme minimum during the same months is as low as 48 deg.
Fahr. In winter the cold is intense. Pottinger, the traveller, relates
that on the 7th of February, 1810, when at Baghivana, five marches
from Kelat, his water-skins were frozen into masses of ice, and seven
days afterwards, at Kelat, he found the frost so intense that water
froze instantly when thrown upon the ground. Bellew, a more recent
traveller, in the month of January found the temperature even lower,
as when at Rodinjo, thirteen miles south of Kelat, the thermometer at
7 a.m. stood at 14 deg. Fahr., while the next night, at Kelat, it fell
to 8 deg. Fahr. The weather was at the time clear, sharp, and cold, the
ground frozen hard all day, while snow-wreaths lay in the shelter of
the walls. A detailed account of the eight days' journey from Gajjar
to Kelat would weary the reader. A description of one village will
suffice for all, while the country between these two places is nothing
but bare, stony desert, varied by occasional ranges of low rocky
hills, and considerable tracts of cultivated land surrounding the
villages of Gidar, Sohrab, and Rodingo, at each of which we were well
received by the natives. With the exception of a strike among our
camel-drivers, which fortunately lasted only a few hours, and a
dust-storm encountered a few miles from Sohrab, nothing worthy of
mention occurred to break the monotony of the voyage till, on the
morning of the _9th of_ April, we sighted the flat-roofed houses, mud
ramparts, and towering citadel of the capital of Baluchistan.

[Footnote A: Cossack whips.]

CHAPTER XI.

KELAT--QUETTA--BOMBAY.

We encamped in the suburbs